Gin News Roundup: World Gin Awards Special!

Welcome to another of our increasingly-crucial Gin News Roundups! It’s awards season again, so this week’s update is a special edition reporting from the Oscars of the Gin industry: the World Gin Awards…

Ireland was the big winner on the night, with Dingle Original from Co. Kerry’s Dingle Distillery topping the prestigious Best London Dry Gin category before triumphing in the taste-off against the other World’s Best category winners to take home the title of World’s Best Gin!

Dingle Original’s victory is testament to the fantastic work being carried on at the distillery and is a fitting tribute to the late Oliver Hughes, one of Dingle’s founders, who passed away in 2016. In my occasional encounters with him, the effervescent Mr. Hughes was quite adamant that his gin was the best anyway – his spirit (pun intended) will be truly bursting with pride at this result.

In what was a truly international lineup, the other World’s Best winners were as follows:

World’s Best Classic Gin: A great result for Never Never Distilling Co’s Southern Spirit (Australia) which came out on top from a strong lineup including Tanqueray 10.

World’s Best Compound Gin: The judges delivered another shock in this category, as Iceland’s Himbrimi Old Tom beat out fellow category-winner Ableforth’s Bathtub Gin.

World’s Best Contemporary Gin:Sheringham Distillery’s Seaside Gin from Vancouver Island in Canada triumphed in a fiercely-contested category, with Martin Miller’s Westbourne Dry and Echlinville’s Single Estate Pot Still Gin among the also-rans.

World’s Best Flavoured Gin: Only launched in August last year, Scotland’s Makar Cherry Gin from the Glasgow Distillery took the gong in the Flavoured category, besting several fancier flavours from south of the border.

World’s Best Matured Gin: Another hotly-contested category, with Sweden’s Hernö Juniper Cask victorious over several more well-known brands including Citadelle, Martin Miller’s and Ableforth’s.

World’s Best Genever: A small field produced just two category winners, with Gospel Spirits’ Barrel Aged Piet Honingh Genever (Netherlands) victorious in the taste-off against France’s Genièvre de Houlle Long Drink Genever.

World’s Best Navy Strength Gin: Germany’s Elephant Strength Gin finally came out on top of a very competitive category, after a six-way taste-off with entrants from the US, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and the UK.

World’s Best Old Tom Gin: The sole English win on the night came from Sacred Old Tom Gin, beating off stiff competition from the likes of hipster favourite (Obi Wan) Ki No Bi Tou from Japan.

That’s about it for this World Gin Awards Roundup, a huge Congratulations to all the Winners! There were also some World Gin Awards for Design on the night – anyone who’s interested in style as well as substance can check those out here.

Check out our Instagram

Warning: The account for the_gin_lounge needs to be reconnected.Due to Instagram platform changes on June 1, 2020, this Instagram account needs to be reconnected to allow the feed to continue updating. Reconnect on plugin Settings page